Youth CITIES March-to-May Bootcamp is our flagship program. This program is designed for middle school and high school students, from any school or town. Middle school and high school students will be working with executives to brainstorm different ideas to start a venture, figure out how it impacts our local community, and determine how its going to make money while driving change.
This rigorous bootcamp inspires, educates, and equips youth to take action and make a difference. We move beyond the academics of building businesses, framing real-life problems, real-life constraints, and real-life criteria as the launch pad for students to create a value-driven, sustainable solution to a real-life market opportunity.
Youth CITIES partners with prominent executives from the business and nonprofit community who teach fundamentals of leadership, entrepreneurship, presentation skills, and business plan creation, and share strategies for leveraging business principles to impact society. Students compete individually or in teams to start-up and build a social venture to solve real-world problems. The top venture ideas will present to a panel of finalist judges.
The prize? $1500 in seed grant funding and the benefit of a hand-selected Advisory Board to help launch a prototype/pilot of the winning social venture.
This program covers a lot of information, and each class builds off of the prior one. It is important for students to attend all of the classes so as to not fall behind. If there are special circumstances (such as SAT’s), please let Vicky know in advance. The following is an outline of the program with key dates that students are required to attend:
KICK-OFF RECEPTION
March 7th, 2013 (Thursday from 6:30pm to 8:30pm):
This will be an opportunity for students to get a glimpse of what social entrepreneurship meet one another. Students and parents will also meet and network with some of the Youth CITIES instructors, mentors, and judges. Course curriculum and workbooks will also be handed out.
CLASSES
March 9th through May 4th, 2013 (every Saturday from 9am to 12pm):
Learn about different types of ventures, basic principles of entrepreneurship, how to incorporate community-giving while still generating profit, why a venture needs money, and presentation skills, etc. Classroom lectures, case studies, role-playing, and mock-pitches will be used to teach business fundamentals. Weekly take-home assignments will lead up to a completed Powerpoint presentation and oral pitch of student venture idea.
CIC (Cambridge Innovation Center) tour and Venture Café Networking
April 25th, 2013 (6pm to 8pm):
CIC is a full service office-campus in Cambridge believed to house more start-ups under its roof than any other facility in the world. Venture Café, housed at CIC, serves as a nexus for helping innovators and entrepreneurs find one another and collaborate to bring their dreams to reality. Youth CITIES students jump into the mix of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and practice the “elevator pitch” portion of the final oral presentation in an effort to make a memorable impression among the various networkers. The student that gets the most mentions by the Venture Café community receives a $50 iTunes gift card.
SEMI-FINALS
May 4th, 2013 (9am-12pm):
Semi-final presentations – all ventures will present. Parents are encouraged to attend.
FINALS
May 11th, 2013 (10am-1pm):
Top 3 ventures will present their pitch for funding ($1,500) and support network to launch a pilot program. Lunch and awards ceremony will follow. This event is open to all students and their respective family and friends, all program judges/mentors/instructors, and special guests.
All program events/classes will be held at Microsoft at One Memorial Drive in Cambridge.